The Sacramento State men’s basketball program has some high hopes for the next few years as they look to climb up the rankings to the college hoops upper echelon. The Hornets made some high profile hires in the form of head coach Mike Bibby and General Manager Shaquille O’Neal.
Bibby was the floor general for the dynamic Sacramento Kings teams of the early 2000s and spent an impressive 14 years in the NBA after winning a national championship with the Arizona Wildcats. He has become a local legend in the Sacramento area and is a great choice to lead the Hornets program to their ultimate goal of being a top-flight Division 1 program. They have already announced that they will be officially joining the Big West conference in 2026-27 and that should help them achieve their goal of making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
Shaq of course needs no introduction as one of the most famous people in America thanks to his exploits on and off the court and his presence alone gives legitimacy to the Sac State program. He even brought his son Shaqir O’Neal along to play for Bibby as one of the team’s stars.
All of this hype means little without results on the court and things got off to a great start with a 103-79 victory over Dominican University of the Bay Area in front of a sellout crowd. The Hornets moved into a new facility known as “The Nest” and they had their largest turnout for a game in the history of the program, according to The Sacramento Bee.
Obviously Dominican University is not the biggest test of the season for the Hornets but it’s always great to get things off to a winning start. That big test will come soon enough as they will travel down to Los Angeles to face UCLA, currently ranked 12th in the nation, on November 18th. Fans in Sacramento have high hopes for this Bibby and Shaq-led hype train and it seems like it’s just getting started.
